With the rising cost of fuel, food, energy and other necessities in our country, many of us are feeling the pinch of inflation. However, for many of our friends and family across Connecticut with very little wiggle room in their monthly household budget, this pinch can feel more like a choke, and can have a lasting negative impact on their overall health and well-being.
That is why Hartford HealthCare is proud to partner with FindHelp.com to offer our Connections That Matter website. Launched in 2019, the HHC online platform provides access to an array of community support resources addressing the social determinates of health. From housing, to employment, to food, these free or reduced-cost support services can have a significant impact on a person’s physical and emotional well-being.
Finding and connecting with programs and services with Connections That Matter is easy, efficient and secure. Anyone can simply enter their zip code to be instantly connected to hundreds of local programs offering help with food, transportation, housing, utilities and many other expenses. Programs can be filtered by immediate location, age, eligibility or other criteria to find the most appropriate assistance available. To ensure this information is accessible to all of our community members, the site can be translated into more than 100 different languages with the click of a button.
In addition, Hartford HealthCare colleagues can access this information through Epic to quickly connect their patients to the help they need. Trained staff screen and identify visiting patients for these social determinants of health, and (if necessary) either make an electronic or phone referral to the appropriate community resource for support.
Earlier this year, Kiera Sullivan (a Resource Coordinator with Hartford HealthCare) was assisting a patient who reluctantly revealed she was suddenly experiencing homelessness. Kiera was able to immediately search for — and connect her with — vital housing resources in her area, as well as other areas of the patient’s struggle such as food insecurity and pet care.
“I was able to find and discuss resources with her quickly and easily,” explains Kiera. “Having access to information helped me keep the conversation going with this patient and understand the full scope of her needs. I established a good relationship with her and followed-up a few more times over the next month. I referred her to a local agency found on Connections That Matter, and she was able to secure housing.”
Whether an individual is referred to services through our clinical team or they search it out directly from our site, no personal information needs to be shared to access these programs. This allows us to connect all people in need with the programs to serve them, with dignity and ease.
Hartford HealthCare will continue to leverage the program as a vital access point to essential services for all of our community members throughout our network, and provide our patients with social and economic opportunities.
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